Brisbane Magistrates Court

The design of Brisbane Magistrates Court seeks to redefine the conventional typology of justice buildings – monumental, and independent of the city – to one which is civic, engaging and connective.

The resulting triangular geometry facilitated a way to make justice buildings more transparent, and therefore accessible and participating in city life. The plan opens up towards the Parklands centralising public space through the interior and affording outlook north and south.

Artworks act to enrich the socio-cultural accessibility of the building inside and out, the forms and materials of the building deriving from interactions with the artists and from ESD responses to different climatic orientations. A further approach was to explore relationships between the forms of large to small scale elements – of roofs and sunscreens, seats and façade patterns – as a means of enhancing accessibility through these scale and proportional relationships.